Paul H

In 1969, Harrison Chaplin had the contract to canalise a short length of the River Colne between two gravel pits passing under an existing aqueduct on the Slough Arm. Harrison Chaplin was run by Tom Chaplin a narrow boat enthusiast (and author) and he had the steel piles delivered by Leicester Canal Transport using a pair of narrow boats - the wooden Josher Chiltern and the composite small woolwich Crater. I lived locally at the time and spent the whole day hanging around Cowley Lock hoping to see them but they were running late so it was to no avail. A few years later when exploring the abandoned works I came across a bantam tug derelict and out of the water with amazingly a Lister JP3 still intact. Paul

When I had the William there were short tiller strings each side designed to hold the rudder at an angle so that, with a small amount of power on, the stern stayed against the side in a wide lock. Also handy for keeping the tiller out of the way so not to clunk your head coming out of the cabin! Paul

Ok l’ve looked at Dusty Miller’s Facebook page and he is friends with Tony Gregory. Tony refers in a posting on Dusty’s page to the memory of welding Cirrus and Nimbus together at Penkridge in 1973. Penkridge is the home of Teddesley Boats who supplied fibreglass cabin tops in the 70s. Could your boat have been created by welding two bow sections together? So I suggest you contact these gentlemen. Dusty Miller artist has a website and will almost certainly also be at the Braunston Boat Gathering later this month. Good luck. Paul

I have a half forgotten memory that this boat was built for a well known waterways personality - perhaps Dusty Miller the artist. Paul PS Google Sirius Narrowboat Granny Buttons and some stuff on Sirius comes up on the Granny Buttons website from about 2004.

I’m not entirely convinced it is Umbriel - the name looks a little long and the fleet number appears to have 3 digits. Also the rams head looks to be a Harland & Wolff product and different to that shown on p104 of Walkers of Ricky. But looking at these small grainy images is always a frustrating process and you may well be right! Paul

Or modernise into a luxury 60s cruise boat!

Or Janet Street Porter...

Is it April 1st again? No boat is beyond saving by the Brinklow boys!

Malcom Braine has (or had) some for sale! About 2 whole sets if I recall. Google “Canal and River Services” at Weston, Staffs and talk to his son Ian... Paul

Yes you’re probably right. I was remembering pictures of the boats high and dry because of the Dutton breach but that was a few years back. i think this is Spain at Barnton.

Yes I believe it’s on the offside salvaged, restored and owned by Ian Riley and paired with Byfield. Paul

Dutton on the Trent and Mersey. Paul

That would be Erebus, a similar boat but said to be from the Ashby Canal. Bought by a forum member in 2011 who was looking for spares for the Alisa Craig engine. Presumably he’s still looking...

It was me who brought Bosley to Stowe Hill. I found it lying in Oxford under the name of Fir Cone and in very poor condition. Here is part of an article i wrote for the HNBC Mag: Fir Cone was obviously historic but what actually was it? Initially I couldn't believe that a boat so short and relatively light could ever have built as an ice boat It also seemed, although I had no way of measuring, to be full beam whereas ice boats are normally rather narrower to avoid jamming on pack ice in locks and bridges. And then it occurred to me that maybe it really was an ice boat but an ice boat built by someone who didn't really know what they were doing. Like a railway company maybe? After following up half-forgotten memories, some intuition and quite a bit of Googling I discovered a gentleman who had made a study of the maintenance boats of the Peak Forest Canal and struck gold. The Manchester Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company, a predecessor of the Great Central Railway, had acquired the Ashton, Macclesfield and Peak Forest Canals in 1848 and in the 1860s built a series of 7 ice boats at their depot at Gorton, Manchester - not at the canal yard where the wooden Joel and Maria were built but in the adjacent locomotive works. As I had suspected, they apparently proved too short to break a wide enough channel around bends for longer boats to follow and also too light. James Hewitt in his book "Adventures of the Nippy" describes one being pulled up on top of the ice scattering the crew in all directions some of whom were seriously injured. Of the seven boats at least 4 survive - Marsden and Whaley Bridge are at Ellesmere Port, Marple is at the museum at Gloucester and Fir Cone presently at Oxford. Local legend says two more are buried in the filled-in arm at Gorton and there is a day boat on the Mon and Brec which could well be the seventh. Marsden was renamed when transferred to the Huddersfield Narrow where it was the inspection boat for Standedge Tunnel. That advert in a dusty copy of Waterways World announced the sale of the fleet of the Conifer Line, a business run on the Worcester and Birmingham by the late Alan Picken before he went on to try and restore the Coombe Hill Canal almost single handed. Through a "friend of a friend" I managed to contact June Picken, Alan's wife who astonishingly remembered Fir Cone well and seemingly with much affection. She recalled Alan buying it from British Waterway's Northwich yard in 1973 - and its original name was Bosley! As Bosley is a village on the Macclesfield Canal, Fir Cone was confirmed as one of the Gorton seven. Paul

A scan through some pics of GUCCC boats in later years suggest that this exhaust position by the right hand slide was not especially unusual - Southall and Darley seem to be similarly inconvenienced. As no engine changes seem to have been documented, I wonder if the exhaust silencer arrangements were altered? It would seem to make the use of tall pipes difficult to say the least! Paul

I always presumed that the small quadrant levers were replaced fairly early on as the connection to the engine was via cable which probably didn’t prove very robust in use. Something I’ve cursed many times when I’ve bashed my head or back on the later-fitted speed wheels! Paul

The other boat is Bullfinch, a modern butty which used to be the fender boat a Braunston Marina. just to the left of Alan’s first picture is “Oxford” or possibly “Endeavour” a launch or “tosher” tug - now I understand completely under water! Paul

Interesting how far the water can overhangs the cabin - close to a point of pivot for easy filling of the kettle and kept secure by the weight of the mop. Nowadays few would be brave enough to do this given the cost of decent cans! Paul

Michael Stimpson is still offering historic narrow boat insurance via A-Plan/Canopius and his number is still 01923 770425.

I think it was a modern construction by owner Matt Beamish who documented the fit out online but can’t remember where. The pod was styled loosely on the lift out cabin fitted to river class Anne but rather longer. He later had Brinklow built him a replica Admiral motor Pellew seen moored alongside. Paul

Sorry I should have explained it better. Don’t click on the song title. Click on “Side 1” on the left hand menu, then you get the real David, Paul

If you go here http://www.waterwaysongs.co.uk/narrowboat_details.htm you’ll find the Narrow Boats album in its entirety and Side 1 opens with Hard Working Boater sung by DB. Paul

Was it on pinkish/flesh coloured card and OO scale? I had one which I was too young and inexpert to ever finish. The name Neville New rings a bell. Paul

Yep ok mea culpa - or as the kids would (irritatingly) say today “my bad.” Battery shelf over the gearbox. It’s a few weeks since I.ve been on the boat and I have no sense of direction at the best of times! Paul

That is on the front engine bulkhead!